Nepal rules out finding more quake survivors

Himalayan nation attempts to avert outbreak of disease, as another large aftershock rattles Kathmandu.

02 May 2015 21:30 GMT

A week after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal, police said the death toll from the disaster has climbed to at least 6,841, with the government ruling out finding more survivors despite relatives refusing to give up hope.

"We are trying our best in rescue and relief work but now I don't think that there is any possibility of survivors under the rubble," home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told AFP news agency.

Kathmandu, my home: Subina Shrestha reports from Nepal

As well as updating the death toll, Dhaka put the number of injured at 14,023.

Late afternoon on Saturday, dozens of Nepalese have gathered in capital Kathmandu's Maitighar Mandala Park to recite a prayer and light candles for those who perished in the earthquake.

Authorities also reported that a magnitude 5.1 aftershock was recorded late on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, who is reporting from Kathmandu.

The cost of the damage is expected to exceed $10bn: remote towns and villages have yet to be reached to assess the devastation there.

"There's a crying need for more action," our correspondent said, saying that in some remote regions, help is still limited.

Two days after any signs of life had been detected among the mountains of rubble that litter the capital, the focus was shifting to reaching survivors in far-flung areas who have yet to receive relief supplies.

Outbreak of diseases

The UN children's fund UNICEF warned of a race against time to avert an outbreak of disease among the 1.7 million youngsters estimated to be living in the worst-hit areas, with monsoon rains just a few weeks away.

Gary Shaye, of the NGO Save The Children, told Al Jazeera that Nepal would need a "multi-year programme" to recover from the disaster.

Nepali village deals with death and destruction

Al Jazeera's Subina Shrestha, reporting from the village of Dukuchap in Lalitpur area, said on Friday that locals were suffering from diarrhoea, stomach cramps and other diseases that could turn into epidemics if the cause of the problem was not stopped in time.

"The water is thick and smelly, but we have to drink it," Kalpana Tamang, a Dukuchap village resident, told Al Jazeera.

Dr Kishore Rana, a major general in the Nepalese army, said that in a number of villages the health centres and hospitals have been ruined and the areas depended on mobile medical teams - often foreigners.

"Our plan is for other medical teams that can come here and stay here for a longer duration - three to six months," he said.

The quake wreaked a trail of death and destruction when it erupted on April 25, reducing much of Kathmandu to rubble and even triggering a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.

More than 100 were also killed in India and China.

While multiple teams of rescuers from more than 20 countries have been using sniffer dogs and heat-seeking equipment to find survivors in the rubble, no one has been pulled alive since Thursday evening.